I’m facing shoulder surgery in the near future. 
I’m looking for a whistle that I’ll be able to play in several keys, to tide me over while I’m unable to play the flute. If anyone here would like to sell a Sweet 3-key whistle (or something similar), please PM me. Thanks!
Dana
Dana, I hope your surgery goes well! May your recovery be fast and uneventful, and your return to the flute quicker than you anticipate!
I have from time to time lusted over one of those 3-key whistles myself. I have a feeling that not many have been made, and that those who have them aren’t going to sell them.
An alternative, if you can find one, would be a 6-key flageolet. It may also prove less expensive, although it will likely need work.
–James
James, thanks for the encouragement. I’m really going to miss the flute, but I do need to have the surgery and get that shoulder healed-up.
How would one get their hands on a flageolet?
Dana
Wow. Coincidence. I have a bad shoulder rotar cuff injury with three bony growths and ruptured tendon and a ligament which is to be split and half removed. I’ve also got tennis and golfers elbow in the same arm. It’s been agony so know how you are feeling. I was told that the Tabor was an idea but I hated them. If you are having the body sling then bear in mind that your fingers may be lower than normal. Imagine a D whistle in your good( say left hand) three fingers on it but your bad arm may be lower in the sling and painful to move arounbd so you need a longer whistle. I reckoned I need the f hole to be where the D hole is but a low whistle would be too heavy. Hope you can get sorted.
Lots of info about flageolets in general can be found here:
There is a link off this site to some information concerning purchasing. No one seems to be making new keyed flageolets, though, so pretty much you’re limited to either buying from an early music shop or finding one on Ebay.
I’ve never had a chance to try a flageolet but have always wanted to. The idea of a 6-key fully chromatic whistle appeals to me and always has.
–James
Ooh, great site, thanks very much!
Selkie, sorry to hear about your injury, it sounds terrible. My right arm will be in the sling. I’m hoping it will be about the right level, especially if I can raise my wrist. (I’m just hoping that I won’t have to have the left shoulder done, too).
(Anyone have a keyed flageolet for sale?)
Dana
Somebody makes a keyed recorder. There’s also a Recorder for one hand as well. It’s Dolmetsch Online - Gold Series Recorders The trouble is that I just looked at the prices. 
I was told that the Flagelot was an early version of the Recorder. Would be one way of getting a tuned good condition instrument and I ould think you could sell it on afterwards.
I bopped over to the Sweetheart flute site but didn’t see any keyed whistles, so I suspect they are not in current production. You might get one made if you ask.
I did look at their antique instruments, and they have a couple of eb flageolets for sale for about $150
check them out at this site
As a declaration of interest I run, for my sins, www.flageolets.com.
Unfortunately, the only flageolets still made are the keyless 17th Century versions and a keyless tin version of the 19th English one. That said, the 6-holed French instrument is just about chromatic and Charles Wells makes very nice ones. His website is: http://www.kawells.fsnet.co.uk/flageolet.htm
In the late 19th Century, Buffet-Crampton started producing flageolets with full Boehm-system key-work. IFC1011, is a good example of one: http://www.flageolets.com/buffetcrapmton.htm although it sold for $1055 on eBay and I think they are very few and far between!
The two flageolets on sweetheart are very reasonably priced for instruments which retain their ivory mouthpieces and 6-keyed models are very easy to play with, in theory no cross fingering. I wouldn’t put too much faith in them being in Eb though- most English flageolets are pitched with a sounding length of D. It sounds like they haven’t realised you can usually pull out the top joint (which has the fipple) to lower the pitch to the right note!
-Jacob
What three keys are you looking for?
Hi Tommy:
Actually, I’d be happier with a 4-key. Bb, short F, G# and D#.
Any thoughts?
Dana
You don’t need that-- a soprano recorder in “C” is actually a D instrument with the lower couple of notes just tacked on at the bottom. Fingering is similar but NOT the same as a D whistle. With no keys at all, this is fully chromatic. You can get excellent plastic ones which play beautifully for very little money. Similarly, an Alto recorder is similar to a low F whistle, and a Tenor is like a low D. Yamaha is a good brand to look for and is widely available.
Although this is true, it has to be said that even a 3-keyed English flageolet (essentially a D-whistle with D#, G# and Bb keys) is infinately easier to play than a recorder. Try trilling from G-G# on a recorder and then on a flageolet. Also Bbs and G#s are so much better in tune on the instrument than on a recorder because of the abolition of cross-fingering.
Indeed, most woodwind instruments started off as chromatic keyless instruments but gained them as this proved to be a better way of designing them. Fipple flutes are probably the big exception here as, interestingly, they are now far less complex than they were in the late 19th Century.
-Jacob
…but I don’t want a recorder! This may sound funny coming from a Boehm flutist, but I’ve always found the fingering on the recorder too complicated to want to deal with. 
Dana